Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1901 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

A ruling has been made by Land Commissioner Hermann which will have important effect upon entry of public lands under what is known as the reservoir act. The ruling recites that “a declaratory statement, under the act of Jan. 13, 1897, does not withdraw the land covered thereby from other entry.” Under the act in question the Interior Department has heretofore held that declaratory statements absolved lands filed upon from other entry, and as by filing such declaratory statement and the payment of nominal fees 1(10 acres could be held by entrymen for two years before commencing construction of reservoirs or other improvements necessary to secure patent. Immense areas have been so secured in western Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado,' Wyoming and Utah by land-grab-bing concerns to the exclusion of actual settlers, The department believes that opening lands taken under this act to entry under general land laws will materially check the evil. A rare distinction is that enjoyed by Judge William Richardson, -who has been chosen to succeed Gen. Joe Wheeler in Congress from the State of Alabama. During the Civil War, when a mere boy, he was under sentence of death and narrowly escaped the gallows. He had enlisted in the Confederate army, been captured in his "first battle and taken to Indiana as a prisoner of war. He escaped and, falling in with a Confederate spy, tried to make his way back through the Federal lines to the South. The spy, known to the outside world only as “Mr. Paul,” was captured, and with him young Richardson. The boy was condemned to be hanged, as well as the older spy, when the Confederate general, Forrest, attacked the UmOn forces under Crittenden at Murfreesboro just in time to liberate the two condemned men. Richardson went back to Alabama, studied law after the war, became probate and county judge and now occupies Joe Wheeler’s seat in Congress.

The dispatches from Manila tell of the deportation from that island of several important generals and leaders of the insurgents, who will be sent to Guam to reflect upon their folly. This is a new policy, and the result of recommenda. tions from officers over there, who have at least lenrned that the Filipinos dread exile more than imprisonment or even death. It is said that the natives are so attached to their island that emigration is unkilown. The knowledge of this peculiarity has suggested banishment as a punishment for the lenders of the insurrection, and the experiment will be tried.

During the last three months the postoffices in the country have shown an increase in receipts that surpasses' all precedent. St. Louis shows the largest gain. The sales of stamps at tha't office during t/he last quarter of the calendar year 1899 were $243,671, while during the last quarter of 1900 they have almost doubled and amounted to $482,804. The receipts in Chicago jumped from $1,344,225 to $1,850,522, and in New* York from $1,991,237 to $2,853,929. 'The increase in Philadelphia and Boston was barely nominal.

There is a proposition to abandon the bayonet, which army officers on duty in the Philippines say is useless. Most of the soldiers serving in the field find the bayonet a hindrance. It is related in some of the reports thnt they discard the article in going through the. jungle. One officer, in a report to the War Department, says: “The days of hand-to-hand conflicts have passed. The bayonet on land is not of as much utility as the cutlass at sea.”

The debates in both the Senate and House of Representatives show that it was the intention of Congress to tax the teflegraph companies and the express companies upon their gross earnings, and not the people who patronize them, but the law was so carelessly drawn that both the telegraph and express companies have been able to evade the tax and compel their patrons to pay* it.

Speaker Henderson has recovered sufficiently to resume the chair of the House of ' Representatives. Secretary Hay is better, and is able to go out. Mr. Depew is also improving, but the grip epi* demic is extending, and the doctors are all busy. The social program is very much interfered with. Washington has suffered from the grip before, but/never so much as nqw.

No information has been received by the Department of State either through the British embassy in Washington or the American embassy in Ixmdon concerning the intentions of Lord Salisbury’s government toward the amendments to the Hay-Pnuneefote treaty. The information that comes from private sources is rejected as idle gossip. The appointment of Col. Samuel M. Whiteside to be brigadier general of volunteers is reiKirted to have caused demonstrations of lAeamire in Santiago de Cuba, where he is stationed now. The coinage of the United States mints in 1900 aggregated $137,599,401. of which the gold amounted to $09,272,942, the silver to $86,295,321. and the tninor efun* to $2,031,137. Secretary Gage has sent to the House an estimate *>f appropriations aggregating $1,000,000 for continuation of the work on the United States powtoffice and court house building at Chicago for tha fiscal year 1902. The House rivers and harbors committee has cut the total appropriations to $00,000,000. The State Department i» advised that Venezuela contemplate* transferring tha Island of Caracao to Germany.